Christ founded the Church to be a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Here at Christ Hamilton we fully reflect that reality. By our own failures we are sinners… but by the grace of God in Christ Jesus we have also been made saints: saints with a past and sinners with a future.
We seek God’sforgiveness when we miss the mark and guidance that we might do better as we go forward. Claimed through the waters of Holy Baptism, we are God’s adopted children, His chosen family and sign of His love to the world. We are Christ’s Body on earth, called to be zealous for good deeds that His true character might be known and others come to faith.
We are a true community. Unlike clubs, fraternities, and online or “virtual” communities, real communities are full of people who are in no way alike. Here at Christ Hamilton we are young and old, rich and poor, accomplished and unaccomplished, committed and those wrestling with lack of commitment. We are people whose Christian faith is both newly-minted and long enduring, hard won. We are those who struggle to be obedient and those for whom obedience seems relatively easy. It is the interaction of all these different sorts of people, bearing one another’s burdens in love (Gal. 6:2) that makes this a great place to draw close to God. (James 4:8)
As a hospital for sinners, Lutherans believe that God accomplishes the cure of our souls (seelsorge) by bestowing upon us gifts of grace through His Church, which was here before we were born and will endure until Christ “comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” (The Nicene Creed) Jesus promised that “the gates of hell will not prevail against” His Church (Matt. 16:18), and through the Church Christ assaults hell itself, curing our souls by:
The Holy Word of God
Adopting us through Holy Baptism
Sustaining us through Holy Communion
Encouraging us by letting us hear that we are forgiven in Holy Absolution
Calling people out of the community to preach, teach, and offer Baptism and Communion to the people as His Holy Ministers
Inspiring the people to public prayer by the power of the Holy Spirit
Teaching us to live of true love under the sign of His Holy Cross*
Christ Hamilton United Lutheran Church gathers to receive these gifts of God’s grace and strives to respond to them with lives of greater faithfulness to God’s will.
This is who we are. We would love for you to join us in our pilgrimage. With the Apostle Andrew, we invite you to “Come and see!”